About: Hz and Channels and stuff

[GoGeTa006]

Hi, I am looking at multiple prospects for my video card and my RAM for my new build, I am expecting to order it mostly by feb.

Anyways I have a quick questions I would like answered,  cause all the benchmarks I've found are on the chipset only. (nvidia 660 Ti vs other chipsets, but not each card by itself)

How much of an improvement is the Core clock and booster clock important?

like for example: (ALL EVGA CARDS)

Nvidia GTX 660 Ti
Core Clock: 915MHz
Boost Clock: 980MHz

2 GB vs 3 GB
vs

Nvidia GTX 660 Ti SuperClocked
Core Clock: 980MHz
Boost Clock: 1059MHz

2 GB vs 3 GB
vs

Nvidia GTX 660 Ti FTW
Core Clock: 1046MHz
Boost Clock: 1124MHz

2 GB vs 3 GB
==============

I mean I can obviously see theres an increase in the Hertz and stuff, but how does this affect performance? and by how much? I mean will paying 50 dlls more increase my gaming by 1 fps? or will it jump by a considerable amount?

also, is there a big benefit to having 3 GB of video instead of 2 GB? (AFAIK this affects when running multiple displays only right?)
BTW I will be running a 1080p 24" monitor and a 32" 720p TV


==============


ON ANOHTER NOTE:


RAM, what about RAM. . .

should I get 4x4GB or 2x8 GB?

Ill be honest, I dont plan on upgrading my RAM ever again, by the time 16 GB of RAM are "standard" I will be getting a new computer anyways, so no point in upgrading at any time, therefore I dont mind using all of my 4 slots.

what I am not too sure about is if there is a performance increase by using 4x4 GB or 2x8 GB, because of the dual channel thing that I dont know what it is . . .

[Pentium100]

Dual channel for RAM is the ability of the memory controller to access two memory modules in parallel. Normally only one module can be accessed at one time, giving data bus width of 64bits (or 72bits for ECC RAM). Dual channel allows the controller to access two modules at once, then data bus becomes 128bit wide. As the clock frequency stays the same, it effectively doubles the memory bandwidth. The downside is that both modules ave to be almost exactly the same.

As for 2x8GB or 4x4GB, I'd suggest to get 2x8GB, so then later you will be able to add more RAM without the need to remove a module.

As for video cards - my advice would be to look at benchmarks instead of trying to work out how clock frequency relates to FPS. Though for the same chip performance is proportional to clock frequency (so 10% higher frequency will give you 10% more FPS assuming the GPU was the bottleneck).

[buchno]

also, is there a big benefit to having 3 GB of video instead of 2 GB? (AFAIK this affects when running multiple displays only right?)
BTW I will be running a 1080p 24" monitor and a 32" 720p TV

If you would have played demanding games at very high resolutions (which can be achieved with multiple regular monitors or a 4K monitor), the video card's memory could become full, which means that it can't load all the textures, etc. As you don't, and assuming you won't in the near future, there is no need for 3GB memory.

Also, if you have a decent cooler, you can overclock your graphics card yourself without having to rely on the factory clock. The cooler for the ones you listed seems to be identical or similar to the reference cooler from Nvidia. It is good for blowing the hot air out from the case, and is optimal for SLI, but since you most likely only will be using one card, I'd recommend an aftermarket cooler, like this one.

[Pentium100]

The cooler for the ones you listed seems to be identical or similar to the reference cooler from Nvidia. They are good for blowing the hot air out from the case, and is optimal for SLI, but since you most likely only will be using one card, I'd recommend an aftermarket cooler, like this one.

I wouldn't. That cooler blows a lot of hot air back in the case, so the fans that blow the air from the case have to be more powerful. The reference cooler is better as it blows most of the heat out of the case instead of towards the hard drives. Even with a single video card, a cooler system is preferable to a hotter one, especially is ambient temperatures can be high or the computer is mounted in a rack.

[Tiffanys]

The GB of ram on a video card is called vRAM, it basically is used for video stuff before having to use your actual RAM, which is better for loading large textures and such. Anything more than 1GB is fine I think. Never buy overclocked video cards though, those things die faster. They have enough problems as is... I'm pretty leery about overclocking a GPU.

As for the RAM what you're looking at is basically that your 2x8 are probably the really tall sticks, right? Will that fit in your case? If you have a big radiator on your CPU cooler, or depending where your RAM is situated with your video card on your motherboard, they may not fit. In which case, you'd want the low profile RAM. That's the only real thing you need to look out for when choosing between those two. Make sure whatever RAM you're going for is compatible with your motherboard though.

[buchno]

I wouldn't. That cooler blows a lot of hot air back in the case, so the fans that blow the air from the case have to be more powerful. The reference cooler is better as it blows most of the heat out of the case instead of towards the hard drives. Even with a single video card, a cooler system is preferable to a hotter one, especially is ambient temperatures can be high or the computer is mounted in a rack.

You're fully correct, if the case itself doesn't have proper cooling, it would be better to blow the air out instead. I assumed (which I shouldn't) Gogeta had enough fans.

[GoGeTa006]

The GB of ram on a video card is called vRAM, it basically is used for video stuff before having to use your actual RAM, which is better for loading large textures and such. Anything more than 1GB is fine I think. Never buy overclocked video cards though, those things die faster. They have enough problems as is... I'm pretty leery about overclocking a GPU.

As for the RAM what you're looking at is basically that your 2x8 are probably the really tall sticks, right? Will that fit in your case? If you have a big radiator on your CPU cooler, or depending where your RAM is situated with your video card on your motherboard, they may not fit. In which case, you'd want the low profile RAM. That's the only real thing you need to look out for when choosing between those two. Make sure whatever RAM you're going for is compatible with your motherboard though.

the RAM will fit, its a mid-tower case and its pretty spacious on the inside, what I was wondering if since most motherboards (if not all?) are now dual channel and stuff, is there any difference in performance between 2x8 and 4x4?
as mentioned I DONT PLAN ON UPGRADING RAM, so either configuration is fine (i might go for the cheaper one. . .) but if theres a small performance gap I'd rather go with the faster one.


And thank you, I'll stick to the 2 GB vRAM then. . . and I did check that MSI it was a candidate, but then my current eVGA card died on me (GTX 9800+) and the customer service was so nice and I found out i had a lifetime warranty and so I fell for eVGA. . .and got my card replaced for free

I've had issues with MSI cards in the past and the customer service wasnt . . .good

and I will msot likely use the stock CPU cooler, unless I find a cheap aftermarket one. . . I dont really like watercooling since I'm not that much of an overclocker, at the most I might overclock it 10% or so. . .but nothing that would require liquid cooling (my current Q6600 is running pretty good OC from 2.4 to 3.0)

[Tiffanys]

You can get a ton of great air coolers for pretty cheap, like $20-50.

And yeah, eVGA is the best brand for GPU's... such amazing warranties.

[kitamesume]

2x8GB @ 1600mhz CL9 is the ram kit you should get as an optimum choice, not because of having spare slots available, its because theres less sticks to worry about and theres less dimms for the controllers to work with(thats a good thing).
but if a 4x4GB @ 1600mhz CL9 has a dramatically less price then go with it.

a GTX660Ti wouldn't be able to tank heavy settings at high resolutions to fully saturate 3GB of VRam before you see your FPS drop like a rock, 2GB is plenty.
the difference in clock speed as to performance is linear but only applies to actual FLOPs performance, gaming performance always scales at a curve with diminishing returns when you hit over 60FPS.

the stock cooler will perform fine without changing it, the downward exhaust isn't an issue but rather helps cool the nearby mosfets even(those can reach over 100c).

[buchno]

2x8GB @ 1600mhz CL9 is the ram kit you should get as an optimum choice, not because of having spare slots available, its because theres less sticks to worry about and theres less dimms for the controllers to work with(thats a good thing).
but if a 4x4GB @ 1600mhz CL9 has a dramatically less price then go with it.

Don't forget to check that the memory actually runs at 1600MHz when you install it. The default setting often seems to be at 1333MHz, but it's easy to change the multiplier in the BIOS.

[Tiffanys]

Not all motherboards even run that frequency or timing.

[kitamesume]

^most of ivy bridge motherboard are set to 1333 default, 1600 max.
ivy bridge's built-in ram controller's max frequency is 1600mhz, except the lower-end pentium and celeron.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Bridge_%28microarchitecture%29

same thing goes for haswell, it may have 1600 as default even.

[GoGeTa006]

You can get a ton of great air coolers for pretty cheap, like $20-50.

And yeah, eVGA is the best brand for GPU's... such amazing warranties.

damn you tiffany! You made me look into them and now I spent 20 extra dlls and I got myself a Cooler Master Heatsink

[Tiffanys]

lol. Just make sure it fits your CPU socket.

[Saras]

You could also encounter vRAM problems if you intend to play a lot of games with a lot of mods. As they don't tend to be optimized.

What concerns clock speeds. No one is stopping you from over clocking the same card. You are likely to end up with higher clocks as well, if you're willing to push it. Unless you're really shitty at the silicon lottery.

As for ram, get two 8gig sticks if it isn't too much pricier than the four 4gig sticks. There's no real difference performance wise and there's less stuff to go wrong. However, I wouldn't spend an extra 20$ for that difference. So just get whatever you can for cheaper.

And even then, ram doesn't really affect the performance of a current gen intel system with a dedicated card. Don't overpay for super low timings or over-clocked sticks. You won't notice a thing.